Tag: A. Catherine Noon

Today is Thursday. As I stared out the train window this morning, noodling on things to write for TT, I found myself musing about the snow. So, my TT today is about what I learned, camping in harsher weather even than today\’s Chicago day.

1. If you write it and share it, people respond. Outward Bound International posted my alumni story on their website!

2. I can survive zero degree weather without a tent.

3 The heat triangle, made up of layered clothing, movement, and food, is what keeps you alive in extreme cold.

4. There are few bugs in the Boundary Waters in winter. For this I am grateful.

5. You need a lot more calories when you’re on the ice for 6 days, traveling 35 miles through ice and snow on cross country skis and a dog sled.

6. No one rests on a dog sled. Those fancy seated sleds they use on the silver screen? Pansies. We helped push our sled – the front one weighed 550 pounds, and the rear one 350!

7. I never knew I could smell like that. Exertion, no showers, 7 days = stinkeh Nooneh!

8 The dogs? Yeah, they don’t bathe either.

9. One of the dogs ate a raven out of the sky.

No, I’m not kidding. The dogs are fed raw meat that’s been frozen, with boiling water poured over it to make a kind of stew. This is so they get water, since they genetically won’t drink (they live in frozen areas like Alaska and Antarctica, so they don’t react to water like a pet dog would). The ravens, which are ginormous, want the meat too and dive-bomb the dogs. The ravens know exactly where the edges of the chain allow the dog to get to. One decided to dive-bomb and peck one of the dogs as she slept on her roof. Thwap. Thwap. Thwap.

CRUNCH!

No more raven.

Nuff said.

9. I can camp by myself on the ice overnight, and cut down my own tree. Hoo-rah!

10. I didn’t write the whole time I was out there. I actually found that the writing pulled me out of the moment, and that I wanted to make sure I stayed present. Instead of writing, I hung out and relaxed when we weren’t moving around. It felt good.

11. It’s hard to explain my reality to others, even ones on expedition with one.

12. Snow in Chicago is no sweat after camping in colder and more icy weather.

13. Clearwater Lake is God’s Country. I wish I could write well enough to do it justice.

A lot of people I talk to feel that 2010 is the year to get shit done, myself included. (Not that I talk to myself.) (Nevermind, forget I said that.) ANYWAY…

So, with the “Get Shit Done” theme in mind, here are 13 suggestions from the bossy to the downright drill sergeant. I channeled my inner domme people, so be warned… LET’S GIT OFF OUR ASSES! To quote Larry the Cable Guy, GIT R DONE!

1. Go away, stop reading this, and write for 30 minutes by hand on a clean piece of paper or notebook. Then come back and read #2.

2. Get up, put shoes and socks on (and clothes, yeh slob!) and go walk around the block for 30 minutes. Yes, it’s cold. No, you won’t die of ice poisoning.

3. You still paying rent at the gym? You’re not subsidizing their employment. Go look up the exercise class schedule and schedule one – ONE – class this week. Tell me in the comments which one you pick, when it is, and then come back and tell me you did it.

4. What is the title of your WIP (work in progress)? Your original work, not any derivative works. Go away, set the timer for 15 minutes, and write on it. If you can’t figure out what to do next in the plot, then interview your main character. Tell me in the comments how it went – and if you want, share the interview.

5. Check out Julia Cameron’s website. Consider this year might be the year to try it. If so, let me know in comments; I’m forming new Clusters for late Feb or early March if you’re interested.

6. My focus for 2010 is “Body, Mind, Spirit, Space.” My mantra is “Get my shit together.” As part of Body, I’ve been working out and making different choices about food. I am not paying attention to the weight, because the number started upsetting me since it wouldn’t move quickly. Accordingly, what I’m focusing on is stuff I can control – like movement and food choices. Today I plan to go to the gym at lunch and do some weights for upper body. What is your plan for today, no matter how small?

7. Don’t underestimate your own knowledge. Repeat after me: “I know what I know.”

8. No, #7 isn’t optional. Go back and do it again.

9. You know what thing you are avoiding admitting you know? It may be a writing-related thing (should write my WIP today), exercise (should go to the gym), food (should buy a vegetable), space (should wash that pile of laundry before it sues for separate maintenance)… Pick one. ONE. (Yes, I said one. Can’t you count?) What small step toward that one can you take before 9:00 P.M. local time today?

10. Tell me what your one thing is for #9.

11. Then do it.

12. Stop. Breathe. No, really. In…two…three… Out…two…three… In…two…three… Out…two…three… Notice the shift in your thinking from the beginning of this list to now. If you are feeling conflicted between panic (Oh shit, I have stuff to do) and resolve (Yeah, yeah, I know what I gotta do), you’re doing it right. Part of getting shit done is the ‘want to.’ But another part is the relaxing and centering. No one can get stuff done when they’re going a million miles an hour in seventeen different directions. Breathe. Deep. Two… Three…

13. JUST DO IT! Pick one thing, any one thing, and do it. You have a lunch break, an evening, maybe even a whole day off today. Today, now, is the only time we own. We don’t own tomorrow, it’s not given to us yet. We don’t own yesterday, it’s gone and won’t return. But now… now is where your power is. Own it. Live it.

Do it.

HOO-RAH!

Thirteen Places I Want to Visit

I love to travel, but in the last couple years have been limited by graduate school and the fact my stepson is in private school that we pay for. I’ve gotten away from grandiose travel plans in favor of staycations, but I thought I’d ruminate on where I’d like to go – both ‘if money were no object’ but also in the sense of, you can’t go anywhere if you don’t know where you want to go…

1. Las Vegas! I used to live there, actually, back in the dark ages. You think I’m kidding, perhaps, but it was a very dark time for me. I’m not really the ‘Vegas’ type, if there is such a type. I found it lonely and devoid of intellectual culture (which probably makes me a snob, but so be it). It’s a fun place to visit, and I had a great apartment, but I sure didn’t enjoy living there.

Of course, the natural question is, if you hated it so much, why go back?

Well, it’s a nice place to visit? ~sheepish grin~ Actually, a friend of mind lives there and I’m going to visit her. I’m really excited!

2. Salt Lake City! I’ve only driven through, and a good friend lives there. I want to visit her and her family!

3. Melbourne, Australia! Same reason!

4. Alabamalama… Sensing a theme here, aren’t you?

5. Antarctica! Ha! No, seriously, I do want to go there. Don’t know anyone there, just want to see the place. It’s got me curious!

6. England. I have friends in London, Manchester, and Scotland (yes, I know Scotland isn’t in England, but she’s English and I don’t know if she’ll BE in Scotland when I get there, so…)… You’re right, that didn’t make sense. Let’s just say England, Ireland, Scotland, and leave it at that.

7. Toronto, Canada. I have a friend there I want to visit, and it’s an amazing place! I’ve done a lot of research and really want to explore it!

8. Madison, Wisconsin. One of my novels is set there, and I’d like to go back for more research. Besides; it’s a beautiful town!

9. Chicago. Oh, wait. I live here.

10. I’d like to visit Europe, all over the place. I can’t do that in only one visit, so… I guess I’ll just spend my life exploring it!

11. St. Petersburg, Russia. I want to see Tsarskoe Selo and the Hermitage, walk the canals, and shake my fist at the statue of Peter the Great… o.O

12. Kiev. It’s the seat of Slavic culture on earth and I wanna go!

13. China. Big place, I know, but I’d love to toodle around the whole thing. The south farm country is gorgeous, and I’d love to see Beijing, Shanghai… I even want to visit Hong Kong.

I ran out of TT, but there’s more places I wanna go! ~jumps up and down~

Happy TT!

I’m a writer. Those of you who know me, know this. Occasionally, I get questions like “Why do you write?” or “How do you write so much?” Instead of answering them directly, I want to share a few thoughts on why writing is better than not writing, in a whole host of ways. This applies to writers and non-writers alike.

1. Julia Cameron, in her seminal work The Artist’s Way discusses the concept of Morning Pages. This is three pages of longhand writing daily. They act in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways to align us with our own creativity and with our own awareness. While difficult to describe, even the evidence of a week can show their power.

2. Writing is a way of grounding. Something about kinesthetically running the pen across the page is therapeutic (I speak here of literal writing, and not just keyboarding).

3. Which is ironic, actually, since I’m typing this list. Which leads me to the next idea, that any writing is good, regardless of the method of doing it. I personally think that it counts even if it’s spoken into a voice recognition software (the one I recommend is Dragon Naturally Speaking ).

4. Storytelling is our birthright as humans. Even if we tell stories verbally, which many good storytellers do, writing them down is a way of preserving them and interacting with them that leads to insight and better acquaintance with repeating issues.

5. Memoir is valuable. I’ve spoken with many people over the years who lament the passing of elders who left this plane without their stories being preserved. Even the vaunted Smithsonian Institution is acting to halt this loss of our cultural heritage with folklore preservation efforts, but more can be done at the grassroots level by ordinary people like you and me.

6. Writing is becoming more and more critical in today’s economy, and only will continue to rise in prominence. Regardless of your opinion about the internet, it’s not going away. While it is a tool of the developed and wealthy world right now, more and more inroads are made every day to bring connectivity to the masses all over the globe, from Africa to Iceland, and Fiji to Indonesia. Facility with written communications, emails, web pages, and whatever the next generation of communication tools will be is critical to professional and interpersonal success. Srsly.

7. Writing is fun. The grammar method of teaching writing is broken, as you’ve probably heard me rant before in these pages if you’ve been reading for a while. If you haven’t, then I’ll simply say, the grammar method of teaching writing is stupid. It isn’t how the human organism communicates, and it stifles creativity. Creativity is messy, like children with finger paints. Rather than be afraid of it, we can embrace it and harness its raw power.

8. Grammar and spelling are even more important now than ever before, despite the proliferation of text-speak and lol-cat language. Why? English, for good or ill, has become the global language of the internet. While there are signs that other languages have gained prominence (German and Chinese, among others), English is still the way that businesses conduct international business and how a very large chunk of the reading population reads – even if it’s in translation. In order to effectively communicate, we need a common language – and simply saying “English” isn’t enough. Grammar is there for a reason, and as much as I dislike saying this, it has importance. It allows people to communicate in a common tongue – which anyone reading the story of the Tower of Babel can see is of a benefit to society.

9. Even non-writers need to write to share their art. Knitters, for example, are voracious consumers of knitting patterns, knitting profiles and interviews, history, design concepts, and all sorts of things. In fact, Nancy Bush made headlines in the writing industry because her last book signing drew 350 patrons – completely unexpected by the publisher (but totally understandable to those of us who are fiber geeks – it’s Nancy Bush, for Heaven’s sake!!).

10. One of the requirements for the national certification of Master Knitter in Handknits is… to write a pattern that the applicant designed themselves. While knitting knowledge is a requirement for this, so is writing. There are a host of other fields for which this is a requirement, from auto mechanics to physics.

11. It’s a marketable skill. You can use it in all sorts of industries, whether it’s for writing letters and such or using them as a copy editor or content provider. Technical writing, for example, is a lucrative profession. While it requires writing skills, it also requires expertise in the specific industry for which you’re writing.

12. You can tutor others. High school students and college students are notoriously weak in the area of writings skills, and there are a growing number of immigrants who need assistance with written English. If you want to pick up some money on the side and help others doing it, this can be a rewarding sideline.

13. You can share your love of writing with others! Group blogs, writing groups, online forums, and a whole host of other avenues for writing are available to you – all under the radar of the traditional publishing world. By that, I mean you don’t have to be a professional freelancer to write and get exposure. Plus, if you follow this route, you will eventually gain the skills necessary to get published professionally – and then, you can remember all of us “wannabe’s” and tell MORE stories of “When I was a newbie writer, I…”

Happy TT!